


They're Not All Bad

by IAmNotLost



Series: You're My Favorite Superhero [1]
Category: The Avengers (2012), The Avengers - All Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, a little one sided steve affections but only because he's noticing tony from afar, ahhh I don't really know what's going on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-08
Updated: 2012-09-08
Packaged: 2017-11-13 19:07:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/506734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmNotLost/pseuds/IAmNotLost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prequel to "You're My Favorite Superhero", where Steve is a comic book nerd, and Tony's popular and funny and beautiful--not to mention the object of his affections. High school AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	They're Not All Bad

**Author's Note:**

> so! A prequel was semi-requested,  
> and I kind of felt like writing one.  
> C:
> 
> Please read the end notes? They're kind of important.ish. owo

"You know what sucks?" Steve sighs, alternating from looking at Peggy, to looking at his comic book. Superman, again. He had them all--he couldn't help himself. The comic was stuffed in between pages of Steve's AP biology text book, and well...Peggy didn't know what was worse.

"Hm?" She responded, half listening and half painting her fingernails. It was lunch time, and Steve thankfully lucked out and got a lunch period with Peggy. They had been friends since middle school, back when they were 9 years old and testing the waters between boys and girls.

They had friends at 13, when Steve thought something was wrong with him, because Bucky was talking about girls and boobs and erections, and those things weren't doing anything for him.

Back when Steve asked Peggy to kiss him, just to see--and yep. Nothing.

Best friends as Peggy told him it was okay, punched him in the shoulder for taking her first kiss for nothing, and then took him out for ice cream. Steve was platonically in love with her, and Peggy was a best friend that couldn't be replaced. Ever.

"That whole table over there." Steve still managed to sulk, even as he was skipping down his happy memory lane. 'That whole table over there' was the _in_ table, where all the rich and popular and attractive people just kind of...herded together. Like buffalo.

Except beautiful.

Peggy just rolled her eyes. This tended to happen often. Steve wasn't a complainer, really--he was sickly and scrawny, but he was a generally happy kid, who was thankful for who and what he had. But his fixation with the table full of rich kids? Unhealthy.

"Steve, you've got to stop with this. If they bother you so much, we can sit outside. But honestly," Peggy shrugged, pausing for a moment to take a sip from her water bottle. "they're not all that bad. A little stuck up, most definitely spoiled--but they have money, can you blame them?" Peggy always told it how she felt.

Steve gloomily poked at his sandwich. "Remember that time Bl--"

"Okay, Blake's a flat out asshole, he doesn't count. But I know you. You can't honestly be judging that entire table. You don't know half of them." Peggy grinned in triumph as Steve pursed his lips, but said nothing. It was true. Steve _didn't_ know a lot of those so called rich kids. But then again, don't people flock to others with the same interests and personalities?

"I know enough." He sniffed, and went back to his comic book. Steve hated when Peggy was right, yes, but most of all he hated acting like this. Steve wasn't judgmental--he certainly wasn't _mean_ , but he just...he might have had a little issue with a few of them.

Blake, one of the dumber boys in the group--Steve couldn't deny the smarts on some of them, like Tony Stark, or Pepper Potts. They either cheated, or worked really, really hard-- had filled his locker with shaving cream a few weeks ago. 

Not only were his school books destroyed, a lot of his favorite comics were, too. He played it off, but it had really bugged Steve. This was the first grudge he could ever remember holding, and even _that_ made him feel bad. He felt bad for holding a grudge. 

Sometimes Steve felt completely ridiculous.

Peggy went back to her nails, and the rest of the period was spent in a comfortable sort of silence. Steve liked that; there weren't really any awkward silences to fill, and they could both do their own thing and enjoy each others' presence at the same time.

"Steve? Hello--earth to Steve." Peggy grinned, and huh. She was already carrying her books. "Lunch is over, Steve. Actually it's been over for about...four minutes, and if I don't get to math, I'll be late for a _third_ time, and Mr. O'Hara's going to give me detention." And with that, Peggy blew Steve a kiss and was on her way.

In fact, well, so was the whole cafeteria. They had lunch seventh, which was the latest possible lunch period. The janitors were shooing out the stray students, because it was a Friday and they wanted to clean up and be out of school as quickly as they could, too. 

Steve was packing up his books, biology book closing with the slightest space right in the middle of the text book; comic separating it in half. Out of the corner of his eye, Steve could see 'that' table packing it up and leaving, and figured he'd just wait until they left first. He wasn't hiding. He was avoiding.

There was a difference. Really.

But it bothered Steve, though, because he wasn't the _avoiding_ type of person. He was small, sure, but he damn well spoke up when he had to, he was raised like that. He could stick up for himself, but recently it was just a chore, and it's not like people like Blake ever actually _learned_.

He was just about to pretend to trifle through his book bag once more, just to make it seem like he was doing something, when Steve noticed that Blake had whipped the glasses off of a boy--freshman, same boy who worked in the office after schools because it gave him a tuition cut--and chucked them into the garbage on his way out of the cafeteria. 

The poor boy looked utterly lost, and _completely_ blind. Steve's lucky he can sometimes go without his glasses--most of the time, actually. His eyesight still wasn't that bad. This kid, however, looked like he couldn't see a hand if it were waving in front of his face. Steve felt a strong sense to protect hit him, because it wasn't _fair_ to this boy. This boy had done nothing wrong, and he just had a probably expensive pair of glasses thrown into the garbage, and Steve could feel his heart break because things like that had him torn between blood boiling and downright _sad_

Steve was still partially around the corner, him and Peggy preferred to sit where they weren't seen much but they could see everything, and he was two seconds away from rushing around the bend and calling out that he'd help the kid out, when--oh. Strange. Steve ducked back behind the wall before he was seen.

Tony Stark--Steve was pretty sure--had...stayed behind? For a fleeting second, Steve thought maybe Tony was going to mess with the boy more, and Steve was _furious_ , and a second away from name-calling and screaming and probably punching, not that it would hurt anyone but himself.

However, Tony rolled his sleeve up and reached his hand into the trash can, and a few seconds later, emerged holding a pair of wire-framed glasses. Steve stared, mouth agape.

That was something he hadn't pictured happened in his wildest imagination.

(But Tony would be in his imagination a lot more, Steve would soon find out.)

Steve stayed silent and watched as Tony _cleaned the frames off_ , before handing them over to the boy. Steve could see a smile, a nice looking one, set on Tony's lip, and then he was saying something that Steve couldn't make out.

But, the other boy smiled brightly, all dorky and genuine, and Tony pat him on the shoulder and allowed his smile to widen a little. Steve was flabbergasted. Was this...had that just _happened?_

Steve's eyes lingered on Tony's mouth, and Tony rolling up his sleeve, and picking the glasses out of the trash, and--and this might end up being a problem.

Still, Steve hid for a moment or two as Tony left, talking to the boy as if they were actually good friends, before making his own way out of the cafeteria. His cheeks were probably a little flushed, and he was suddenly having _feelings_ , and yeah, this was definitely going to be a problem.

He didn't know Tony Stark. Steve only knew his name because they were in the same art class until Tony got switched out. Steve didn't know Tony Stark, if he lived with both his parents, what his favorite color was--anything like that.

But he saw Tony when Tony thought no one was looking. That's how you find out a person's true nature. 

Steve might have fallen in love a little bit with Tony's.

 

 

"So, you look smiley." Peggy grinned, even though it had a hint of confusion in it. She loved it when Steve looked like this--wild eyed and _happy_. He was her best friend. She always wanted him happy.

"You know, Peg, you were right."

"Of course I was." She sniffed the air delicately, before winking. "What was I right about this time, though?"

Steve ducks his head and grins, and...and oh boy. Peggy knows that look. "They're not all bad."

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhh I love Peggy ;-;
> 
> This is like...the pre-prequel. I think. Basically, I'm torn between delving into their friendship a little bit more than I did in the original piece (titled You're My Favorite Superhero, like the series title,) because I just really like to write pining. And falling.
> 
> But, I'm also thinking of doing a sequel to You're My Favorite Superhero.
> 
> So, basically, just stick it out as the chapters get all wishy-washy, because this one is first, and another one might come after this but before YMFS, and ugh I should really learn to plan things ahead of time.
> 
> Would you guys like to see more? As in, how they became friends?
> 
> Anyway, I do hope you enjoy? And have a lovely day. C:


End file.
